Like innumerable tasks in which the human race has been engaged, the concept of vacuum cleaning is based on the laws of the Prime Elements. The powers of weather and wind have taught mankind that powerful windblast can move things, both small and large, and this has been applied by man to give power to machines and as means of transportation. Devices of various kinds for moving things or collecting them by means of suction are based on the same laws, including the vacuum cleaner, in which suction (the air flow) is man-made by motor power.
The vacuum cleaner as we know it is an offspring of the age of electricity. As such it does not have a long history and it has therefore been developed from the same basic ideas in similar ways in all continents, namely to gather free matter into an accumulation case, such as dust into a vacuum cleaner's dustbag (filter bag), by means of air flow (suction power) generated by an electric motor.
The conventional vacuum cleaner, like many other suction devices, is based on three major components, which are:
The vacuum cleaner is operated by carrying the suction pipe's (conveying tunnel's) orifice up to the matter to be recovered, so as to enable the suction power of the air flow to move it and thus convey it by drift through the conveying tunnel into the vacuum cleaner's accumulation case (the dust), the recovered matter is arrested there on the inside of its filtering wall, where it accumulates as the air flow goes on and thrusts through the filtering wall.
Vacuum cleaners are most frequently designed in one of two ways, the first design is a combined design where the conveying tunnel is extremely short and integral with the apparatus in such way that its orifice is a fixed part of it. These vacuum cleaners suffer the disadvantage that their bulky machinery is closely connected to the orifice, which makes them cumbersome in use, and limits their passage into corners or narrow places, such as under furniture.
The other design is designed in units where the conveying tube is a combination of suitably long metal pipes and flexible air hoses (suction tubes), of which one end is connected to the machinery, and the other end (the orifice of the conveying tube) may be moved over a circular surface, without moving the machinery, with a radius nearly equal to the length of the metal pipes and the air tubes added together (the conveying tunnel). The orifice takes shape from separately designed accessories, which can be fixed to it and are interchangeable, so that its size, shape and function differs.
Originally the accumulation case was most frequently made of durable material, such as laminated textile bags which were regularly emptied, but in later years various types of disposable paper bags have been almost exclusively used, which are thrown away along with the dust and replaced by new bags. These bags have some disadvantages, one of which is that when comparatively heavy and sharp articles are slung forcefully into newly installed bags to which dust has not yet assembled on the inside as a protecting layer, they may tear holes in them through which dust and small debris may diffuse into the air. Everything which the vacuum cleaner captures goes into these bags, whether worthless or useable or even valuable things, which somehow have come across the path of the vacuum cleaner.
When vacuum cleaning, one hears now and then a click and a rattle from the vacuum cleaner or the suction pipes, when rigid articles are sucked into the equipment, such as buttons, small articles from household appliances (screws etc.), coins, rings and jewelry or fragments of jewelry, even gems, and so on. Each time this happens it causes one to worry and question what may have caused this. When suspicion arises that something of value has been sucked into the vacuum cleaner, the usual resort is to tear open the dustbag and rummage in the dust in order to ascertain whether it may be found there. This is both a dirty job and a tardy one, and most homes lack the facilities for undertaking such search with its offending dust pollution and uncleanliness, apart from the fact that the article in question may not at all be found when the bag contains some quantity of dust. Here one can mention that destitute people who seek to obtain their sustenance on the scrap-heaps of large cities, take special interest in dust bags from vacuum cleaners, in order to search them through for valuables.
It is therefore clear that there is much to gain by making it possible to inspect simultaneously the articles which are carried into the vacuum cleaner, and to ascertain without difficulty whether they include something which should not be thrown away, and if so, recover it, before it enters into the accumulating case. This is the object of the present invention.